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And to fuck it up or get tired while youre making it?
Why not confirm you leave nothing on the table instead?
(On November 12, AITAF will celebrate its tenth anniversary witha special Broadway performanceof Sam ShepardsTrue West.)
But he knows its the glow from the big and small screens that often draws people in.
Or the barista who wants his autograph in her book of poetry.
Not so much kitschy, but as if those two jobs are fundamentally at odds.
And people expect that being in the military is going to be difficult.
Theyre not like, Oh, the caterings bad.
Oh, were shooting more than 14 hours?
The stakes are so high [in the military] that theres no Well,Ifeel this way.
Everyone is on the same plane.
What are the commonalities?The team effort.
And if they dont know, everything feels like a demoralizing waste of time.
But the collective effort you just described could also be said about a business or a sports team.Sure.
Do you know what I mean?Yeah, I do.
If a PFC is really good at his job, then hell get put in charge.
Acting is not set up to be a collective effort.
It can be, but it never is.
What do you mean?Theres more bureaucracy to navigate.
Only, like, 10 percent is the actual doing of it.
I dont want to complain about having a great job.
I dont want to be that guy.
What am I trying to say?
How much do money and fame distort your thinking and feeling about work?Does money?
Yeah, it does.
Because those things make you uncomfortable?I dont want to start getting into favors.
Its not about me andStar Wars.
I guess that applies to acting also.
He would take all that money and dump it intoFacesorOpeningNight.
I feel like I dont have the right answers for you.
Theres nothing wrong with your answers.
As you change, your relationship to your job changes.
At school [Juilliard] I learned the value of time.
Well, I learned that in the military, but I transferred it into making movies.
It always seems like a miracle when someone is willing to pay for us to do that.
The Blockbuster in your town had Jim Jarmusch movies?It was a Hollywood Video.
We also had a Blockbuster and PJs Video.
Making something that can affect someone like that is an amazing opportunity.
Im getting very saccharine, but you cant take anything for granted.
I dont know, these big themes of life and death feel free to jump in any time.
I bet you do.That thinking you just described affectseverything.
Without sounding pretentious, which is impossible, Im trying tomeanit as much as I can.
So I want to work with people who are taking things seriously.
Theres a quote I stole from an interview withThelma Schoonmaker.
Its something like, Making a movie is like having to take a piss.
Thats how I feel.
Does acting need to be difficult in order for you to feel like its worthwhile?No.
Some roles are more challenging than others.Silence, for example, wasphysically exhaustingbut thats what was required.
I do like to work hard, though.
But I dont need work to be any more difficult than it needs to be.
Im always trying to find a way to work more economically.
Can I ask you something?
Yep.Do you feel with writing that you overdo things or put a lot of work in you didnt need?
You werent thinking about it.
You were just doing what was instinctual.
Ive been lucky to work on jobs that required me to trust my instincts and move on.
What does that mean?It doesnt mean not showing up to set or anything like that.
Maybe I wont go overthereand Ill completely fuck it up.
Ill have a little battle with him [Baumbach] to keep the scene on its toes.
Let me tell you whymybelly button is so interesting.[Laughs.]
Yeah, what makesmetick?
So to not have to think this discussion is getting too abstract.
Im also moved by straightforward things like the writing inOrdinary People.
You know that movie?
For sure.Theresthis scene in the hallwaywhen he [Timothy Huttons character] is like, You took trig?
And she [Mary Tyler Moores character] goes, Did I take trig?
I want to check that that I dont shut myself off from that abstract thing.
Youve been helping run a nonprofit for ten years.
Like, Yeah were interested in your mission but could you take a picture with my daughter?
Shes a bigStar Warsfan and if you do that Ill give you $100,000.
No, Im not going to take it.
Is there nobody that is just philanthropic for the sake of it?
Is there always some picture with your kid?
I dont want AITAF things to turn intoStar Warsevents.
But then you say, No, and youve pissed somebody off.
I dont know that I ever handled that badly; I just took it too personally.
So now you say yes?I still say no.
It has to be the right thing or it can feel disgusting.
Were not saying, Give us $100 and itll go towards $100 of art.
Were giving something that you cant quantify.
You find that you cant emotionally disassociate when you have to glad-hand?
but Im not wired that way.
This is an ongoing thing Im trying to figure out.
I want to cultivate donors that well have a lasting relationship with.
So its not just, Give me a check and well keep this as impersonal as possible.
Im trying to make things meaningful.
Do you know what Im saying?
Im not quite explaining myself.
I get what youre saying.Okay, good.
Im trying to say things to you here that I dont normally say.
I know fame, and the subject of fame, is not your favorite thing.
So how did that distaste factor into your decision to be inStar Wars?
You had to know thatd kick things into a higher gear.No.
Im very tall and I look a certain way.
I cant blend into a crowd.
Youre fairly nondescript this morning.I look suspicious.
I dont want to give anything away.
It seems like itd be fun to play around in that world.Yeah, the scale and size is interesting.
ButStar Warshas 4,000 people working on it.
Its an entirely different process.
Is there anything about your public persona thats given you insight about yourself?
Or made you think about yourself differently?What do you mean?
That I show up on set and glare at people?
That I carry around cold cuts that I smash before every scene?
Do you?[Laughs.]
I dont think of myself as an intense person.
If what Im doing is so abnormal that its intense yeah, I have no idea.
Im not a method actor.
Its stormtroopers running into walls because they cant see through their helmets.
So I dont know where the intense thing came from.
This has been a mostly serious conversation.
Assuming you have any.Im so fun that I cant think of anything.
Did I read somewhere that you play music?No, I dont play music.
]Yeah, not for fun.
Work is sometimes fun.
I mean, I have fun.
What do I do for fun though?
Its okay if you dont have an answer.I have no fun.
Social media, I dont participate.
I dont have an opinion that its bad or worse.
Some people give a shot to control it.Thats not how I want to spend my time.
When did you know that you wanted to be an actor?
I did a play in my freshman year of high school and then tried to do theater throughout.
The rule in our house was that I could do it if I got good grades.
But being an actor didnt seem like a realistic job to someone living in Mishawaka, Indiana.
I liked that that school didnt check grades and admission was based on your abilities.
That doesnt mean I thoughtgood, Im in.
It meant you thought you had a shot.Yeah.
And then I didnt get in and I put acting out of my mind.
Was there something that happened?I had a come-to-Jesus moment.
There was a training accident withwhite phosphorouswhere we very easily could have died.
Is a soldier who has been affected by the arts different than one who hasnt?I think so.
The Armed Forces has acronyms for acronyms but no language for expressing anything abstract.
And the military is a stressful environment.
And its not as if everyone in the military only thinks about the military.
Its the same situation with the military, only people are also handling weapons.
People are stressed out.
Expressing that feeling somehow makes it less stressful.
I totally got that play.
These answers Ive been giving you are the worst.
Im listening to myself and thinking,What the fuck am I talking about?
Why do you keep saying that?!
Your answers have all been fine.
I dont know.That was a joke.
But Im not bailing you out.No, you arent.
I would say no, it isnt high integrity.
But overall no, there doesnt seem to be a lot of integrity.
Im not saying anything controversial with that.
At the higher levels theres interest in money, and wherever that appears, it affects peoples choices.
How interested are you in the subject of masculinity?
When I was in high school I wasnt an organized sports guy.
A bunch of guys getting together doesnt sound appealing to me.
I never had the hey bro, lets all hang out thing.
I havent been asked about this subject a lot recently.
WhenGirlscame up I used to get these questions more.
Questions about masculinity?About modern masculinity and what it means.
Thats not really an answer to your question.
I have no insights on modern masculinity.
I dont think much about it.
I see value in being emotionally available sometimes.
I see value in getting angry sometimes.
A sense of responsibility is a good thing to have.
I dont have a better answer than that.
Theyre constantly exploring or doing things wrong.
The great thing about this work is that you you never truly figure anything out.
It can always be better.
It can always be more economical.
Youve mentioned economical a couple times.
If I can start from an economical, efficient place then the performance is going to be better.
I try not to watch things that I do.
And its not my job to feel good about what Im doing.
Its the audiences job to get an effect from what I do.
I can feel anything I want.
I didnt know anything and that was good.
Because not knowing anything meant you didnt have any expectations?Yeah, exactly.
I had no pressure.
I was just doing what Id gone to school for four years to do.
Its a special feeling when you first get paid to do what youve always wanted to do.Yeah.
It was a miracle to be making a living as an actor.
What I get to do, it still feels like a fucking miracle.
This interview has been edited and condensed from two conversations.
